currently own and drive (and fix. every damn weekend) a 1987 pontiac fiero gt- mid 13 second car. i am tired of fixing this or breaking something and having to bum a ride to work. i was out looking at used cars, and a relative recommended i buy his car, a maroon 1996 maxima. i forgot to look what model, but 1996, 50k miles, for 8 grand, how could i say no? well, took for a test drive, needs more power. car has leather electronic seats, cd and cassette, all kinda luxury things. i think its a gle- idoes the gle have the same hi-po engine as the se? want an auto for traffic, so thats fine. where can i get some information about forced induction, probably a supercharger (maybe turbo?) built my own turbo system before, so i know how to do it. anyone have any good links for me to check out? would like to have this auto 4door eating gtp's for lunch. thanks for any responses!

 

I have a 1996 maroon se....the engine is the same in these engines, but you'll get the better 1/4 with 5 speed (duh)....if you want supercharger there is a kit made by stillen......i believe thats www.stillen.com.....but along with that I think you'll need a tranny cooler and vb mod? other people with chargers on here can answer if you need those other items too....

 

hey, see u looking for maxima auto, i have one which i'm selling because i want a 5 speed, auto too boring for me...my car is very well taken care of, 70% high way miles and has a lot of hook ups which won't improve speed but improve looks...GLE so it has everything on it plus some extras that i put (new system and all)....i checked kbb.com and my car is going for 7800 if sold to private party, with additions i put i'm selling mine for 8500 which i would say is a VERY good price, my pic below is real old and doesn't have everything my car really has (inside and out) so if u interested, let me know...i'm in jersey....email me

 

looks like a lot of people on the board are scared of inventing their own stuff. why do you all wait for someone to make a turbo kit? go find a damn thunderbird turbo coupe in the junkyard, get the turbo, saab intercooler, do some plumbing, and ba da bing- turbo system. this is probably how i am going to do it, its the way the fiero was founded. maybe not the ford turbo (a tad too small) but there are lots of turbos on ebay and in junkyards. from what i have read, the maxima (95 up) computer/fuel delivery should be okay for 5-7 pounds of boost (a la tbird turbo) or a tad more. if a 5 speed, then the turbo from a buick GN would work... garrett t3-t4 hybrid would probably be the best way, w/ 3" downpipe to free flowing cat w/ lo restriction muffler.. or perhaps, valved exhaust a'la older honda accord, where the exhaust flap stays closed under normal acceleration, but at WOT when there is more exhaust pressure, we could use a pipe running along side the muffler, that would open up, so around town exhaust noise would be minimal, but any FT bursts would open it right up.. i think i am gonna build my own turbo system, have done it before, have some of the fabrication equipment, and the FE/FWD layout WOULD make an IC a lot easier than the fiero did.

 

well just because I posted does not mean that a lot of people are scared of inventing there own stuff.....i simply made a comment that there is a supercharger kit available for us..if you want to invent your own stuff......go ahead....good luck to ya

btw: it becomes at least 10x more convenient when you have everything you need bundled up and sent to you in one kit with instructions then to do your own...especially for those of us inexperienced.

 

many apologies, that was not directed at you, the SC kits available are nice, but about 1/2 the cost of the car. i think i can turbo the car and get into the mid/low 14's for probably 1000 doing all the labor myself. (good for an auto, no?) dont know, havent run yet, no baseline. sorry if you thought i was raggin you

 

oh you can rag on me all you like, i was worried about the other multi thousand people

 

i have heard that superchargers are better for autos, rather than turbo

 

I heard the opposite.

 

The person above is correct. The auto will be better for racing (ie the turbo will stay spooled up).

I own a 2001 dodge diesel (I know....). I own a 5 speed because the trannie will not handle that much torque, but I do know the auto's bombed (better off modified baby) will be alot faster (no turbo lag).

thanks
Frank

My wife own's the 97 GLE

 

And btw ... the turbo kit is out already. Check the Group Deals forum.

 

so you want to beat GTPs.... you need a 5spd, you need an intake and full exhaust, you need to be a good driver. you are now faster than the stock GTP by a lot. if you want to take out a modded GTP you will need to have some sort of forced induction to get you from the low 14 to the mid 13.

 

An automatic Max isn't going to put up a good fight against a GTP without forced induction or ALOT of work. 5-spd would be the better choice. Simply having a 5 speed is good for about .7-1.2 seconds depending on whos driving.

 

not that easy....

 

you ever tried to fit a turbocharger, piping, and an intercooler in the engine bay of a mid engined pontiac? the max should be easy (comparatively) and the intercooler should be a lot easier to work with, since air actually comes through the grill in the FRONT. the auto is better for FI- look at the fastest turbo cars around, the buick GN, pontiac turbo trans am (the 87-89 i think? NOT the early 80's one!) 3 liters, a turbo that big would spool down quickly, and be hard to respool with a manual. plus, if i get the desire to stir some gears, i'll just fix the fiero again -shawn

should be taking delivery of the car next week, already went to the junkyard, and bought a stock ypipe, so i can use the dimensions to make my own.. will post all progress on the subject

 

Where are you located??

 

Hey if you get this project up and running let us know about your progress. I do not at this point know enough about turbo's to take on such a project (but I am reading to try to do some learning) but if you can do this as a DIY project with successs it would be great to see how it goes for you. Let us know and check back here often once you get that Maxima of yours going.

SuDZ

 

An automatic turbo max isn't unheard of. . . Matthel's (Turbo95Max) was an auto before he redid everything and converted it to a 5-speed. The turbo kit currently available at this moment is for 5-speeds only due to plumbing issues. The auto tranny takes up a ton of room in the engine bay so getting everything to fit is a problem. Good luck on you project and I am sure everyone will be interested on how you did it when it is completed. It is nice to see more people trying to engineer things themselves.